A joint investigation team could not find the root causes for the stability and performance problems. (file image) Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
A supplier of medical technology to public hospitals says investigations into problems with scanning reporting systems failed to find the root cause.
Hospitals across the central North Island from Bay of Plenty to Waikato and Taranaki, are [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/522222/800-faults-as-hospital-scanning-technology-struggles
struggling to overhaul unstable medical scanning technology], which reports the results of MRI and CT and other high-tech scans.
Te Whatu Ora told RNZ the problems - which have escalated from just 30 to 800 a year - were "related" to a 14-year-old system from supplier Philips.
Philips said it regretted the concerns expressed in the papers which the agency released to RNZ under the OIA.
But it disagreed with its system being put at the heart of the problems.
A joint investigation team involving Philips, another company with tech in the system called Kestral, Health NZ and other vendors, tried to find the root causes for the stability and performance problems, it said in a statement.
"While we have successfully implemented mitigation to restore stability ... despite the team's best efforts, the root causes for these issues could not be discovered.
"We are committed to patient safety and wellbeing, and we have been working closely with Health NZ and their clinical teams on ensuring the seamless operation of healthcare facilities, and on ensuring that critical radiology services are meeting patient needs."
Te Whatu Ora is replacing the old system with a new Philips one, at minimal extra cost as it comes under a service agreement.
The central health region around Wellington has also had major problems with its scanning reporting technology, and with the project it embarked on to overhaul it. The papers showed this sparked concerns in the Waikato region about how its upgrade project would go, and a review of it last year.